Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

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Within These Lines

by Stephanie Morrill

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Blink for this beautiful copy.

Publisher: Blink

Publish Date: March 5, 2019

Hardcover

352 Pages

Standalone

Genre: Historical Fiction

From Stephanie Morrill, author of The Lost Girl of Astor Street, comes Within These Lines, the love story of a girl and boy torn apart by racism during World War II.

Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family living in San Francisco in 1941 is quiet and ordinary until she falls in love with Taichi Hamasaki, the son of Japanese immigrants. Despite the scandal it would cause and that inter-racial marriage is illegal in California, Evalina and Taichi vow they will find a way to be together. But anti-Japanese feelings erupt across the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Taichi and his family are forced to give up their farm and move to an internment camp.

Degrading treatment makes life at Manzanar Relocation Center difficult. Taichi’s only connection to the outside world is treasured letters from Evalina. Feeling that the only action she can take to help Taichi is to speak out against injustice, Evalina becomes increasingly vocal at school and at home. Meanwhile, inside Manzanar, fighting between different Japanese-American factions arises. Taichi begins to doubt he will ever leave the camp alive.

With tensions running high and their freedom on the line, Evalina and Taichi must hold true to their ideals and believe in their love to make a way back to each other against unbelievable odds.

"Be brave enough to care, and bold enough to act."

A beautiful love story of Evalina and Taichi fighting the odds to make their relationship work. I love the message and characters within this story. I did feel some parts were disjointed and wanted a little more build up so that those "big" moments made more of an impact.

Unfortunately this story just didn't quite hold my attention the entire time and I felt myself skimming through some parts. While I think this book will work better for the more avid historical fiction reader, it was just a mismatch for me at this time.